Back in 2001 I established Utilitel, an industry alliance of all the major electricity companies in Australia. The initial set-up was aimed at looking at business opportunities for the utilities in the telecoms industry and over the subsequent years various new telecoms businesses were established by the utilities. Obviously this was a tough market and […]
Tesla doing a Google in the Australian electricity industry? Read More »
The merger was not approved by the New Zealand Regulator (6/2017). During the last decade there has been considerable merger and acquisition activity in the telecoms sector across global regions. Where these processes are not possible, for regulatory or commercial reasons, operators have found ways to share resources in a bid to provide improved services
One of the so-called low-hanging fruits in smart city plans is street lighting. Significant savings can be achieved by replacing the existing system with LED light and allowing for the management of light contingent on the level of traffic. This, of course, also results in cost savings. I discussed the street lighting project with my
The complexity of multifunctional smart city projects Read More »
The digital TV and video streaming industry has changed beyond recognition and it continues to evolve in 2016. Consumer habits are shifting from broadcast TV to on-demand content – especially streaming. Traditional TV viewing is increasingly facing competition from other viewing platforms such as smart phones, tablets, and Smart TVs. Choice is the key. Broadcasters
Pay TV market under increasing threat from Video Streaming market Read More »
With the rise of digital platforms, the media industry is rapidly changing. In newspaper and book publishing, TV and radio broadcasting, film, music, and other forms of media, we see that the national walls that protect local organisations within traditional models are crumbling. In other words, it is no longer an issue of local market
The Apps and Entertainment market continues to evolve Read More »
Interestingly, during the process of establishing the Smart City Industry Collaborative one of the blue chip companies I contacted indicated that they were not a big fan of smart cities as their company was not really in the business of ‘making people happy’. They were selling ICTs to ‘make cities smarter’. This conversation took place a few
How cities can contribute to social stability and security Read More »
The Chinese telecom market is the largest in the world in terms of subscribers and is undergoing transition. Mobile subscriptions outnumber fixed voice connections and voice is giving way to data as the primary revenue generator. China’s telecom market is served by three operators; China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. All three are integrated
China Continues to Evolve as a World Leader in the Digital Media Sector Read More »
It probably is because we are so good at doing that in our industry. We start with over-promising and under-delivering and then in following years we fix it. So why would 5G be different? Our admirable technology companies are telling us that 5G will be 100x faster than 4G and that it will have 50x
One of the most difficult elements in the development of smart cities is how to finance them. Local government doesn’t have the money for it and while state and federal governments might have more money to spend there is no way that their current tax funds could pay for even a fraction of the investments
Are blockchains the solution to financing smart cities? Read More »
The global digital media entertainment market continues to go from strength to strength in 2016. In particular the global streaming revolution is gathering pace. Streaming is closing in on broadcast TV and the Internet now rivals broadcast TV as a vehicle to deliver consumer content. The entertainment industry generally is flourishing on the back of
The global streaming revolution is taking place Read More »
One of the discussions I am currently having with my international colleagues is about the international trend towards urbanisation and the resulting shift of political, economic and financial powers from centralised states and federal structures to mega-city or mega-urban region centres. Some of my American colleagues expressed the fear that this would further marginalise rural
Why we need fibre-to-the-farm Read More »
In a recent speech President Obama again stressed the need for better collaboration between the tech industry and the government. He referred to his own White House initiative – this has resulted in the newly-formed US Digital Service, which is trying to recruit the tech industry to work with and for government. One of the key reasons
Government-industry collaboration is better than developing a surveillance state. Read More »
Within the debate of the Multi Technology Mix of the Australian NBN, where the HFC also gets included in this mix for approx 20-25% of the connections, it interesting to follow the debate on the upgrade of this infrastructure in America. Cable networks around the world are now faced with a major technology upgrade known
Is building FttH cheaper than upgrading the HFC networks? Read More »
Lake Macquarie City Council has laid the foundation for creating a more connected, innovative and resilient city, with the adoption of the Lake Mac Smart City, Smart Council Digital Economy Strategy. A key development here has been that the council started this project by looking internally. They understood that if they were to develop a
Lake Macquarie Smart Council, Smart City Read More »
Many city councils are grappling with the big data issue. A key driver for their city to become smarter is to provide citizens with access to data sets that they can use to build new applications and services. As mentioned before, the smartest city will be the one with the smartest apps. On the one
Smart Cities and the open data dilemma Read More »
Back in 1980 when I still lived in the Netherlands I worked with the Dutch futurist Griet Titulaer (an astronomer by trade) in building ‘The Home of the Future’. I would say that at that stage it was more built around innovative interior design with automation features. Home entertainment also played a key role in
Waiting 30 years for smart homes and still counting Read More »
For some time now Hamburg has been working on becoming the world’s first Smart Seatropolis through a partnership between the City of Hamburg, the Hamburg Port Authorities and Cisco. With an advanced, end-to-end network being built that connects real-time information between urban services and adjacent port operations historic Hamburg is leapfrogging into the 21st century.
Hamburg – Smart Seatropolis Read More »
Sunshine Coast Council hosted the inaugural Australian Smart Communities Summit in Caloundra. The fact that the event happened there is a reflection of the commitment that this council has to the development of a smart city. One of the most critical elements here is leadership, and both the mayor and the CEO are passionate about
Sunshine Coast leading the smart city movement Read More »
When the Australian government’s National Broadband Network was announced in 2009, Ipswich partnered with surrounding regions to create what they called the Western Corridor National Broadband Network in order to attract national interests and investments. This early start paid off well for the council as it became one of the first recipients of the NBN
Smart City Ipswich Read More »
Over the last 20 years or so we have regularly revisited the developments in virtual reality (VR). I remember experiencing VR for the first time in the late 1980s, so this technology has been in the making for a very long time. And we are still uncertain about its growth over the next decade. There
VR demand set to grow, but little prospect for telcos Read More »
At regular intervals I like to report on developments in e-education. As far back as the 1990s I earmarked the education sector as one of the major beneficiaries of the new developments in digital technologies. I even predicted that this would be one of the first sectors that would take advantage of the transformational aspects
Will STEM and flipped classrooms lead the e-education transformation? Read More »
With some of the poster-child services of the sharing economy now becoming more mainstream it is interesting to follow the developments that are taking place in this early stage of development. All those actively participating in services such as Uber, AirB&B and Lyft have seen regulations creeping up on them, be it in relation to
The maturing of the sharing economy Read More »
As with so many forward-looking cities Geelong started to implement a ‘smart’ project well before the term ‘smart city’ became fashionable. But, as we have been discussing, like most of these projects also this one was at the start not undertaken in a strategic context, and again like most other projects elsewhere being implemented as
Smart City Geelong Read More »
While there are plenty of opportunities for local councils to create cost savings – especially by cutting through their internal silos and using ICT and infrastructure technologies on a sharing basis across the various city systems – the problem remains that before these cost savings can be made significant ICT investments are needed, and the
City-as-a-service – new business and investment model Read More »
As I am involved in both the smart energy and the telecoms market I am in a good position to make comparisons and observations in relation to these utility markets. I have been following the telecoms market for over 30 years and the electricity market for 15+ years – in both cases well and truly
Will telcos become the OTT players in smart energy? Read More »
After 32 years of publishing the monthly Telecommunications Newsletter in print, we have reached the end of our printed era. We were the first telecommunications newsletter to be printed in Australia but it will now only be available online, where it continues as a free weekly newsletter to some 4,000 customers, as well as a blog (2,000
The end of our printed era – 1983-2015 Telecoms & Broadband Business Newsletter Read More »
Last week I attended this most interesting conference. One striking element of the event was that every Japanese presenter mentioned ‘the disaster’ at least once in their presentation. This is how they refer to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. They almost never specify the ‘nuclear’ disaster; if they don’t just use the word ‘disaster’ they refer
Smart community conference Tokyo Read More »
On my recent trip to Europe I also visited my hometown Oss, Brabant, in the southern (better J) part of the Netherlands. Here I drove on the ‘Highway of the Future’, a 6km access road from one of the main the freeways into the city and its industrial areas. This local project has national significance
The highway of the future – Oss, The Netherlands Read More »
There certainly is a lot of interest in the M2M and Internet of Everything (IoT) market in 2016. But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. For example, all new electronic devices are now M2M devices. Tens of millions of smart
Most M2M activity is taking place unnoticed Read More »
Discussion paper for family and friends. This is a draft version and I never expect a final version. My personal journey: Exploring science and religion Introduction In this essay I would like to explore the role that religion and science has played in our insatiable quest of the meaning of life[1] with questions such
My personal journey: Exploring science and religion Read More »
The all-powerful social network sites People are increasingly becoming aware of the emerging ‘internet monopoly’. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and many the other (local) social network and media sites are becoming so large and powerful that they can dictate the use of their services in such a way that people lose control over
The Internet Monopoly Read More »
In 2011 I presented the report, Broadband: a Platform for Progress, to the Broadband Commission for Digital Development at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Secretary-General of the ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, thanked the team of experts that, as lead author of the report, I brought together. And the Director-General of UNESCO, Dr Irina Bokova, endorsed the report
Broadband: a Platform for Progress – speech at UNESCO HQ Read More »
The following is a translation of the press release that was issued by the Ministry after my meeting with Minister Frank Heemskerk in 2009 whereby I officially presented him with a copy of the Big Think Report on Trans Sector Thinking. The Minister, on June 3rd met with Paul Budde to discuss broadband policies. Minister
Trans sector meeting with Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Read More »
